‘Three Malawians share one mobile phone’
The Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (Macra) has said cellular subscriptions stands at low 33 percent because of high costs and heavy taxes.
The recent World Bank data base on cellular subscriptions indicates that Malawi has one of the lowest mobile subscriptions in the world.
The data indicates that in 2011, Malawi had a cellular subscription of 25 mobile phones per 100.
Compared to the World Bank data, even at the current 33 mobile phones, Malawi still ranks poorly in the world.
According to the World Bank, in 2011, neighbouring Zambia cellular subscriptions stood at 61, Zimbabwe at 72, South Africa at 127 and Botswana at 143.
Tanzania stood at 56, Mozambique at 33, Ethiopia at 17 and Burundi at 14 phones per 100.
Macra communications officer Clara Mulonya, responding to an e-mailed questionnaire said Malawi is suffering from the high costs because it is landlocked .
“Poor infrastructure such as lack of electricity in most parts of the rural areas makes people fail to use mobile phones since they cannot recharge them. Phone operators are also unable to bring their equipment which relies on electricity to these areas,” she said.
Mulonya said a lack of stiff competition is also responsible, since there are few mobile phone operators; hence, the price of making a mobile call is exorbitant.
“On one hand, disposable incomes among the rural where more than 70 percent of the population lives is too low to afford a telephone call at such high price,” she said.
This poor stand on cellular mobile phones and ICT in general affects Malawi’s ease on doing business, economic development and government efforts to recover the ailing economy.
Government in its Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) included ICT as one of the pillars that could help recover the economy.
The ERP, among others, aims at improving usage and adoption of electronic and online services; availability of service; geographical coverage and usage of modern broadcasting technology and reducing communication costs.
Mulonya added that Macra in conjunction with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has explored ways of connecting people to ICTs both in the urban and rural areas with projects such as Universal Access and Multipurpose Telecentres.
She disclosed that Macra will soon be offering some incentives such as lower frequency charges to phone operators in rural areas to encourage them to roll-out their phone services at affordable prices.
